He said Harding came to the station last week but didn't sign the contract. He said the station needed to know which weatherman to count on by April 6 because the quarterly television ratings period begins May 1.

Harding had worked without a contract since March 15, when his previous two-year agreement expired, said Ballew.

He said Harding had been reluctant to sign a new pact, and had been looking for a job at his former station in Lexington, Ky.

"We gave him a deadline of March 26 to sign, and another deadline of April 6," Ballew said Wednesday. "We had bad vibes when he didn't return the contract. I was getting mixed signals."

Harding, contacted at home Wednesday, said that he was shocked by the news.

"I don't know the real reason they got rid of me, but that's not it," he said. "The offer was terrific, and I told them I'd sign it. They're telling lies."

Harding, who declined to name the salary in the contract offer, said he told Ballew two weeks ago that he had verbally committed to sign a new four-year agreement and that he had rejected an offer from the Kentucky station. He said the signed contract is in his lawyer's office.

But he said he had been sick for three weeks, suffering from mental exhaustion after taking a week of vacation time.

Then last week, Harding said, his wife had a baby boy who was born a month premature, and that kept him out of work.

Harding had his differences with WVEC management. He said publicly a year ago that he was unhappy that the station had simplified his weather graphics. They were redesigned by Harding in October.

He hired Hal Levenson, the former news director at WAVY, Channel 10, to negotiate a pact for him in January. Levenson put out a news release stating that the two sides were far apart and that Harding might be forced to leave. After WVEC management refused to talk to Levenson, Harding hired Weintraub to represent him.

WVEC hasn't named a weathercaster to replace Harding, but hoped to hire someone before May, Ballew said. Weathermen Karen Jones and Joe Flanagan will fill in, he said.

Harding, who has a doctoral degree in meteorology and was billed as "Dr. Duane" on the air, said the station might not have liked his scientific approach to weather.

"They wanted me to be more of an entertainer, like a Willard Scott," he said. "That's not my style."

Ballew said Harding's style had nothing to do with his firing.

Harding said he hadn't made any plans for his future. "I've got a new baby and I don't know how I'm going to feed my family," he said.